
Overview
Set during the early part of his reign, Ivan faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people. Sergei Eisenstein's final film, this is the first part of a three-part biopic of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, which was never completed due to the producer's dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's attempts to use forbidden experimental filming techniques and excessive cost overruns. The second part was completed but not released for a decade after Eisenstein's death and a change of heart in the USSR government toward his work; the third part was only in its earliest stage of filming when shooting was stopped altogether.
Cast

Николай Черкасов
Czar Ivan IV

Людмила Целиковская
Czarina Anastasia Romanovna

Серафима Бирман
Boyarina Efrosinia Staritskaya

Михаил Названов
Prince Andrei Kurbsky

Михаил Жаров
Czar's Guard Malyuta Skuratov

Amvrosi Buchma
Czar's Guard Aleksei Basmanov

Михаил Кузнецов
Fyodor Basmanov

Павел Кадочников
Vladimir Andreyevich Staritsky

Андрей Абрикосов
Boyar Fyodor Kolychev

Alexander Mgebrov
Novgorod's Archbishop Pimen

Maxim Mikhaylov
Archdeacon

Владимир Балашов
Piotr Volynetz